National Insurance hike is a savage attack on the self-employed

West Midlands UKIP MEP James Carver has joined the attack on the Chancellor accusing him of making life worse for millions of self-employed workers following yesterday’s national insurance hike.

Mr Carver described the increase as a “pointless and savage attack” on enterprise.

“The self-employed have paid less national insurance because they cannot claim the benefits that employed workers enjoy.

“They cannot claim statutory sick pay, or redundancy, they have no holiday pay or company pension.

“Is the government going to give them parity so they can claim such benefits? That would cost the Exchequer an awful lot more.”

He said the Conservatives had lost any claim that they supported the millions of people who have used their initiative and started their own small businesses – and had broken an election pledge.

Mr Carver, who was a self-employed businessman running his own umbrella manufacturing enterprise for many years before entering politics, said for the government to claim to be making life better for the employed by making life worse for the self-employed was the worst kind of levelling down.

He said: “It is an approach more befitting of big state socialism than of a party that claims to understand wealth creation.

“Self-employed people create their own jobs – they take risks, invest their own savings, receive no benefits and have no guaranteed income.

“They show guts and determination and like the rest of the electorate they were promised that the Tories would not be whacking up national insurance rates in this parliament. In their case it is going to be a promise broken.”